UN official calls for ban on ‘killer robots’

A top United Nations human rights official is calling for a
ban on the development of autonomous “killer robots.”

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U.N. Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns issued a report
Thursday raising concerns about robots that can kill without human control,
urging all countries to stop development of the technology while the
ramifications are considered.

Heyns warned in the report that lethal autonomous robots
(LARs) would make it easier for states to go to war.

“In the same way that the taking of any human life deserves
as a minimum some deliberation, a decision to allow machines to be deployed to
kill human beings deserves a collective pause worldwide,” Heyns said in a
statement.

“If this is done, machines and not humans, will take the
decision on who is alive or dies.”

The weapons that Heyns refers haven’t been created yet, but
he said the technology is developing at “an exponential rate.”

There are already weapons that have some degree of
autonomy, including the U.S. Navy’s Phalanx system designed to stop anti-ship missiles that can search,
track and engage against threats.

Heyns warned about the dangers of taking humans “out of the
loop.”

“States find this technology attractive because human
decision-making is often much slower than that of robots, and human thinking
can be clouded by emotion,” he said.

The report makes a distinction from weapons such as unmanned drones, Heyns said, because in that case someone is still at the controls.

While the idea of “killer robots” conjures images of the “Terminator” movie series, Heyns wrote that those types of
“sentient” machines aren’t on the horizon just yet.

“While the relevant technology is developing at an
exponential rate, and full autonomy is bound to mean less human involvement in
10 years’
time compared to today, sentient robots, or strong artificial
intelligence are not currently in the picture,” the report says.

Heyns presented his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council
Thursday, recommending that a high-level panel be created to articulate an
international policy on the issue.